Plagiarism Policy

Background

In the 21st century information is freely accessible to all who have access to electronic media via devices such as tablets, laptops and phones. It is also easy to download this information and then submit it in an unaltered form or without acknowledgement.

As an educational institution that subscribes to the value of integrity, Collegiate must ensure that all information is used responsibly. Thus it is necessary to outline to all stakeholders the School’s stance on plagiarism.

Definition of Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the use of someone else’s ideas or words or findings and pretending that they are your own, without giving acknowledgement of the actual source. As such, it is fraudulent and constitutes misconduct.

Responsibilities

Teachers are responsible to:

Reference the work in any handouts distributed.

Provide research tasks that require learners to develop their own questions, thus avoid stealing the ideas of others.

Ensure that learners are able to show understanding of work submitted.

Check for suspected plagiarism using various types of software.

Identify plagiarism and provide a list of references of the original sources used for the plagiarism.

A learner should:

Show that she understands the work submitted by using her own words.

Include in-text referencing and a list of references for her research.

The referencing must be in accordance with the information on bibliographies and referencing provided on the website/ school’s intranet.

Consequences

Plagiarism is fraudulent and constitutes misconduct. Disciplinary action will be taken against learners who are found to be guilty of plagiarism. Evidence of plagiarism could lead to severe penalisation, even to the extent of receiving zero marks for her work.

Plagiarism Declaration

I know that plagiarism is using someone else’s work as if it were my own.

I know that plagiarism is fraudulent.

I understand that I will be penalised severely if my work shows any form of plagiarism.

I will acknowledge contributions from other sources, be they someone else’s words or precise information.

I declare that, besides the acknowledged contributions, the work will be my own work.